History of the WolvHaven Server
|
This article is under Construction.
It may be unfinished. You can help by editing this page. When this page is sufficiently long, Remove this template. |
The WolvHaven Server's History continues to evolve, feel free to add in content!
Founded somewhere in Early 2011, the WolvHaven Server was founded to be SilverWolv's personal private minecraft server among friends. Over the years the server has experienced many events, good and bad and has overcome several blunders. The server continues to navigate its way through being a rather informally run minecraft server to where it is today becoming a rather well-known server in the minecraft transport builcing & city roleplay community. This page documents a rough outline of major events that happened in the server over the years and continues to evolve.
2011: Humble Beginnings
The WolvHaven Server was born in early 2011 as a private minecraft server for SilverWolv and his friends. SilverWolv was recently introduced to the game of Minecraft and the endless possibilities and blank-canvas nature of the game was attractive to him. He mainly spent his time in Single Player until he joined his friend who went by the username of __Husky__'s minecraft server. There he experienced the joys multiplayer minecraft for the first time, and decided to start his own server.
New Centrif is born
Main article: New Centrif (1st Haven)
Upon discovering that one could import an existing minecraft world into a vanilla server, the WolvHaven server was born. The server had no official name, and was run purely on the vanilla minecraft multiplayer server that came with the game itself. The server was founded with a simple goal to build a city in minecraft with minimal help from mods to the games. A funamental aspect was also that there was to be no official texture pack, as it would be a hassle to distribute and maintain such a resource.
WolvHaven back then was not a 24/7 server, and was operated using hamachi to allow other players to connect. This was often very cumbersome for new members but was sufficient given its private server nature.
Troubled Times
After the retirement of New Centrif in end 2011 with the release of minecraft 1.0 during minecon 2011, the server set out to experiment using bukkit and plugins for the first time. However with limited understanding of how permissions worked, the server soon switched back to vanilla minecraft. It would go through several iterations of different worlds and formats before settling on the next iteration of the city called Wolv City.
2012: New City, small traction
Wolv City replaces New Centrif
Main article: Wolv City (2nd Haven)
Wolv City later replaced the city of New Centrif as the main world of the server. It was also with this iteration of the city where WolvHaven took on the survival multiplayer gamemode that is familiar with us today. Players would travel out of the city in survival and mine for resources before coming back to the city to trade among themselves. Wolv City also had a particular district named Wolv Haven, which is where the server eventually gets its name today.
The Founding Fathers
SilverWolv had previously also mostly played on a seperate minecraft server named "Lucky Kingdom" where he met mash_p0tat0es. Mash originally asked SilverWolv whether he had any wool for a giant pig statue he was making, to which SilverWolv replied that he didnt even have enough wool for a bed and couldnt give him any as a result. Their friendship grew when SilverWolv bought a plot of land and built a simple wooden house in his town which he found to look very nice. Eventually SilverWolv also founded a town called "New Centrif" in the server, and mash also joined in.
Eventually both players connected on social media and mash joined in on the server on 2 April 2012 as an admin. He eventually invited his classmate y0urs_Tru1y to join the server as well, who would soon be promoted to Moderator, and then later Admin.
Together, SilverWolv, __Husky__, Mash_p0tat0es and y0urs_Tru1y make up the founding fathers of the server.
The Bukkit Experiment
Up till early 2012, the server had been running on a vanilla minecraft server. It's initial experiemntations with bukkit eventually failed due to the lack of knowledge with in-game permissions and how overall plugins worked together in general. There was also no initial need for the server to move to Bukkit given its simple nature and small playerbase.
Economy Reset
The server also underwent its first and only ever economy reset during this period of time after experimentation with economy plugins left players with illigetimate spawned-in balances. The experiment lead to certain members having millions while others in the negative balances. This negative balance eventually lead to the server's net total amount of money in circulation to be over a negative million WHD.
A full reset was performed, resetting every player's balance to $1000. All members, including staff were to obtain currency from legitimate methods such as mining and trading. To assist in this new mode, the Jobs plugin was introduced; but the very same plugin would lead to several problems with the economy later on.
Popularity on Twitter
SilverWolv would on occasions share screenshots of Wolv City on his twitter, which eventually got the attention of RookieMC97, who was a rather popular figure within a community with over 1000 followers. RookieMC97 eventually joined the server to tour and posted screenshots of the server online, which sparked interest in many of their followers who then came online to visit. However, despite all this, the server continued to remain private as SilverWolv did not have a way to finance or pay for server hosting due to a lack of a credit/debit card.
2013: New Haven, WolvHaven is public (for a short while)!
New Haven replaces New Centrif
Main article: New Haven (3rd Haven)
Wolv City eventually outgrew the ambitions for a growing minecraft city, and hence the 3rd iteration of the city, New Haven was born. This was also the first time in the server where the WorldGuard was used to protect the city's infrastructure.
Server goes public for 2 months
SilverWolv eventually reached a deal with his parents that he would finance the server and his parents would assist to pay the server bills using their payment cards. The server was hosted on a server hosting platform called mine-o-city hosting for a very affordable cost of US$5 a month, and the server only had 1GB of RAM at the time.
The server opened to the public in June to much fanfare, and had a consistent playerbase that mainly enjoyed playing survival, and new members of Staff joined the team. Carew, PixelVox, PunchingPixel and KuteKake, who were all from the Twitter community that RookieMC97 promoted to as well. This which lasted for 2 months till July where a disagreement between SilverWolv and his parents led to the plug being pulled on the server as there was no way for the bills for the server to be paid without a card even if SilverWolv could afford it.
Mission #SaveTheHaven
When the news broke that the server was going down members of the twitter community started a campaign called "SaveTheHaven" to help finance and pay for the server. A member started a paypal which ran into some issues eventually although some members had sent money to the account. The amounting pressure eventually gave way due to questioning as to when the paypal would be ready to allow for the payment of the server bills to be made and the idea was dropped with refunds made to all who had contributed.
WitherGate: Mass Grief Attack
WolvHaven experienced its first mass grief attack in 2013 where an exploit involving wither explosions and damage was used on the Sandbox by a player called MrGreen289. Over half of the Sandbox was damaged as a result and had a great impact on the server as the Sandbox then was one of the most popular worlds within the server.
Investigations later found that it was caused due to inadequate protections by WorldGuard, and was immediately fixed.
PixelGate: Staff betrayal
Due to a disagreement between SilverWolv and PixelVox, PixelVox threatened to release the NewHaven city world file to the public as he had been entrusted with the world save file for rendering purposes on the premise that the file would not be shared. This prompted SilverWolv to release the world as a safeguard onto planetminecraft. Since then, SilverWolv has been very wary of who he entrusts server files and access with in the staff team.
Launch of the Wiki
In August 2013, the WolvHaven Wiki was launched using a free service provider shoutwiki. Several articles about 3rd Haven were written. The introduction of a Wiki for the server was one of the goals of SilverWolv, similar another popular Minecraft creative server at the time - The VoxelBox.
The WolvHaven Wiki would prove to be rather unpopular later on, with frequent service outages, slow support, and a lack of customisation.
Connections with Epsilon From Tumblr
SilverWolv regularly posted builds from the server on Tumblr which sparked the interest of a player by the name of nakokun, who was the owner and founder of the city of Epsilon. Both players and servers forged a strong bond and friendship as they would often help each other out and build on both servers.
The WolvHaven Gathering and Christmas
Main article: The WolvHaven Gathering
The server later went public again during the November and December school holidays, and the very first WolvHaven Gathering was held in November 2013 together with Thanksgiving and Chsitmas festivities in the server. SilverWolv was also experimenting with WorldPainter during the period, and soon after the next iteration of the city NewWolvHaven was being planned and built.
It was also during this period of time where Axton would join the server, with ambitions to build a mass transit railway network that connected the city.
NewWolvHaven Replaces NewHaven
Main Article: New WolvHaven (4th Haven)
Construction for 4th Haven began in late December 2013. For the first time in WolvHaven's history, the world was custom generated using a program called "WorldPainter". It was also the first time where the city would be comprised of multiple islands instead of a single island, which was the case in the previous iterations of the city.
2014: Public, but very quiet
2014 was a relatively quiet year for the server as SilverWolv was busy studying for his GCE 'O' Level examination. The server was mainly patronised by players who played Survival Multiplayer but did not see a lot of activity.
In March, Mash_p0tat0es had donated a minecraft server which he paid but did not have a use for till the end of the year. He had bought a year long subscription with hosting provide Nitrous Hosting but plans for his own server did not fall into place, and passed the server plan over to WolvHaven. As a result, the server was hosted online, but without much supervision as SilverWolv would only come online during the weekends until December
BlameNitro
Nitrous Hosting was not very popular with WolvHaveners due to frequent downtimes and an imposed limit on storage space. As a result, whenever there were technical difficulties, #BlameNitro was the go-to tagline.
YouTube Channel
Click here to access WolvHaven's official YouTube channel.
The WolvHaven YouTube channel was launched in August 2014, and its first YouTube video of a timelapse ride of the BERT District Line was released, and since then, YouTube would be the main source where players would find out about WolvHaven. The video has over 140,000 views as of 2021.
Stalingrad Tram opens
Main Article: WolvHaven Tram (4th Haven)
In September 2014, a building competition, dubbed "Innovate", was announced to the public, with the aim of receiving creative transit ideas from the commuters themselves, which in turn, would be turned into reality if it met the three criteria: low-cost, low maintenance, and efficient. Many submissions were considered, such as a trolleybus or monorail system that ran on all three islands. However, it was settled and decided that a tram system was the most cost-efficient, low maintenance, and efficient in terms of passenger flow.
On the 13th of October 2014, player MatthieuTofu, who had envisioned the project, unveiled the Stalingrad Tram, or the Tram Line 1, or as it's known now, the WolvHaven Tram. The line opened on the 13th of October 2014, with its original route running from Stalingrad Coast (Now Stalingrad South) to Stalingrad. Just a few weeks later on the 2nd of November, Tram Line 1 extended further up north to Central Park East (now SOHO) and to Nationale (now Parkroyal) with the entire route stretching 1.4km over 9 stops.
Tram service was unreliable at first but with the introduction of a revolutionary automatic spawning tram system on the 16th of January 2015, tram service delivery increased to 95%, and ridership was at an all time high. Referred to as the future of rail transit, the WolvHaven Tram was very successful in its first year.
Upon the completion of the first line, ambitious plans were drawn out to expand the tram system further east, and possibly even into Westford, as a means of solution to replace the debilitating status of the poignant bus system back then. However, due to an also debilitating ticks per second situation, all plans were shelved and eventually replaced with buses that served the planned routes.
2015: The start of a new Era
The WolvHaven most people are familiar with began from 2015.
Financing is here
SilverWolv managed to register for a pre-paid debit card to use to pay for the server bills, and in 2015 the server shifted to a 1GB server hosted by MCProHosting. The server was renewed at 2 month intervals.
Titanium Server
Nixholas joined the server in April 2015 as he was a classmate of SilverWolv, and would contribute to many aspects of server administration, mainly handling the technical aspects of the server. A proposal for a cheaper alternative server hosting provider was given with more resources such as RAM and storage space.
The idea was for all WolvHaven services to be centralized into a single machine, with a website using xenforo. However, this proved to be fatal as a DDoS attack brought the server down. It was later found out that the server hoster was using dated hardware, which resulted in the loss of over 4 months of data and progress.
City-Build 1.0: Project Westlandia
Main Article: Gardellia
Autobus22 introduced a new creative city-building concept to the server, whereby a national rail network would be built and players would be able to claim stations and build towns and cities around their claimed stations. Work had progressed but several design flaws led to the termination of the project. It would later be replaced with Old Gardellia in early 2016.
City-Build 2.0: Westlandia2 (Old Gardellia)
Main Article: Gardellia
The project that opened after Westlandia would be the original Gardellia. This version of the world was a large world painted flat island, with the intention that players would be able to terraform the terrain to their liking after. This iteration of Old Gardellia was mired with controversy, stemming from disagreements over borders caused by the small station spacing, unequal WorldEdit rights and poor or selective enforcement of the rules.
2016:
Metro+ Introduced
Main Article: Metro+
The Metro+, a form of electronic ticket used on public transport in Greater WolvHaven and is the first of its kind in Minecraft, was introduced onto the server on the 11th of January 2016. It is valid for travel on all Department of Transport operated modes of transport including Metro, Bus and Ferries and is also valid on some privately operated modes of transport such as BERT. Whilst it was first issued to members of WolvHaven in Janurary 2016 initially with a small amount of functionality, more features such as being able to get a replacement card should the original be destroyed/lost using the original card's ID were eventually added.
A standard Metro+ card is a Name Tag that is titled Metro+ | Standard with the identification of the card while a Single Journey Metro+ is a Name Tag that is titled Metro+ | Single Journey with the mode of transport the single journey ticket is valid for. Passengers "tap" the card on a reader when entering or leaving the mode of transport in order to validate and refund extra amount charged respectively. Cards may be purchased, refunded and "Topped Up" at ticket machines found at Metro & BERT stations and major Bus stops.
The idea for a tap on tap off card system had existed in WolvHaven since as early as the Wolv City era in 2012 and during the days of the NewHaven era, a brand new ticketing system was introduced, called MyTransit but it soon ran into multiple problems with fare evasion and passengers being charged the incorrect fare resulting in the system being scrapped.
City-Build 2.0 Terminated: Too much drama
Main Article: Gardellia
In early 2016, SilverWolv announced the termination of the original/old Gardellia citing excessive drama that was caused by the world and inadequate moderation or enforcement standards. A replacement world would be worked on which would later become the current Gardellia world. A new world was desired to address all of the design issues faced by the original Gardellia.
A search for a suitable world seed was initiated, and the seed "qixtato" was selected after rounds of suggestions. Work on the network would progress over the rest of the year before its final opening
Joshypocalypse: WorldEdit disaster
In March 2016, the largest WorldEdit accident in the server occured. Then server member Jotch was working on the construction of the WolvHaven Metro extension into Mechanicsburg which was originally meant to go in the lower deck of the Silonner Bridge. He had made a selection in the North of Westward before proceeding to another location near Palais De Royale to work on another project.
However, Jotch did not deselect the selection earlier made in Westford, and while making a selection near Palais De Royale, the second point of the selection failed to register, likey due to connection latency issues. He then proceeded to //set 0 on a selection that made up almost 50% of the city.
Due to the server's then recently upgraded hardware, this meant that the server was able to handle and process most of the world edit operation before crashing. As a result, they relogged into the server to find that almost all of the city had its ground level deleted and replaced with an approximately 7m deep hole.
The Joshypocalypse incident led to the introduction of WorldEdit limits on the server to prevent similar incidents from occurring again.
WolvHaven celebrates its fifth anniversary
Main Article: The WolvHaven Gathering
WolvHaven celebrated its fifth anniversary on the 2nd of April 2016. As part of the celebrations, a WolvHaven Gathering, dubbed 5WH, was held in front of the 4th Haven Eiffel Tower. With the introduction of Discord, WolvHaveners continued with the music-sharing tradition using a music discord bot. This also allowed participants to interact with each other through voice for the first time as well.
The celebrations featured traditional games played in previous WolvHaven Gatherings such as spleef, paintball and build my thing. In addition, a ghast attack survival game where players would hide in a building and try to survive an onslaught of ghasts attacking the building using fireballs was introduced. The event also featured a dragon ride, where players would ride on ender dragons that flew on a defined path to tour the city.
[Embed YouTube trailer of 5WH]
Political Parties banned
Main Article: Political Parties
All political parties were banned and vetoed with majority approval by the Executive Council on the 24th of April 2016 due to endless fighting between parties and many a refusal by many to follow server rules. Political parties would not be reintroduced onto the server until the Party-List Proportionate system was implemented in April 2017.
[Helper] rank introduced (4 Jun)
Main Article: Ranks
"It felt like I went back in time"
As part of continuing 5th Anniversary Celebration events, the "It felt like I went back in time" exhibition was opened between the 10th and 30th of September 2016. It enabled WolvHaveners to visit the server's 3 previous city worlds, notably New Centrif (1st Haven), Wolv City (2nd Haven) and New Haven (3rd Haven).
A fresh new website
The server launched a new website on the 12th of November 2016. This came after the old website was hacked by a hacking group that was engaged by a member who could not accept their ban. As a result, all forum data was lost however no user information was compromised.
.png)
City-Build 3.0: (New) Gardellia is here!
Main Article: Gardellia
Westlandia2's replacement was launched on Christmas Day, 25th December 2016. This followed WolvHaveners voting in the World Referendum held from 18 March 2016 to 20 March 2016 in favour of a new creative-building world. The new world came pre-built with a rail network which was presented to the public on the June 3rd 2016. As a result, the world itself was rendered as early as June 14th 2016 in order for construction of the network to begin. WolvHaveners were once again consulted on September 24th and October 30th with regards to the station design of the rail network and the rules of the new world. On December 22nd, WolvHaveners were able to start applying to build in the new world.
Calais de Royale (29-31 Dec)
2017:
Old Gardellia and INNOVATE officially closed
Following the opening of the current iteration of Gardellia and the Laboratory world, the Old Gardellia and INNOVATE worlds were closed on the 22nd of January 2017.
Moderator and Administrator elections cancelled (February)
Main Article: Staff
On February 23rd 2017, President SilverWolv announced the cancellation of all future Moderator and Administrator elections. This was later revealed to have been decided in view of members of staff being afraid of punishing members of the server for fear of losing out on their votes in elections. Following this, a new appointment system was revealed on March 4th, with new Moderators and Administrators being promoted from the ranks of Helper and Moderator respectively at quarterly Staff Performance Reviews.
FifthHaven planning begins
Main Article: New Wolfminster (5th Haven)
With serious design flaws in the 4th Haven primarily due to its small size, proposals for the 5th iteration of the city would be floated since 2016 as the server celebrated its 5th Anniversary. This was despite the option of expanding the current world winning out in a Parliament sitting, a plan which was eventually ruled out due to technical difficulties and the greater potential benefits of starting a brand new city from scratch.
In March 2017, planning for the new city world officially begun with WolvHaveners being asked to help plan the new world and notably comment on an initial proposed map layout for Fifth Haven by SilverWolv. The proposal called for a 7km by 7km world made up of 7 main islands, and paid homage to 4th Haven with the shape of the new proposed Wolfminster island looking very similar to that of its predecessor.
Members of the community started proposing ideas using the map, drawing out districts and areas for land use; including Metro maps which were frowned upon by SilverWolv himself and other members of the community who felt that Metro and rail transit planning should not be its top priority. This eventually led to rail infrastructure planning being halted for 3 years.
Problems with the initial proposal soon ensued, as planners soon found out that the scale at which they wished to build at would result in space in the proposed world running out very quickly, resulting in similar problems as 4th Haven. This was notably due to the shift from 3-block wide road lanes to 5-block wide road lanes.
Parliament relaunched and reformed
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven
In late February 2017, President SilverWolv introduced plans of a brand new parliamentary system whereby general elections would be held under a Party-List Proportionate system in which the percentage of votes a party garnered would determine the percentage of the seats they have in Parliament. Non-elected players would also be allowed to participate in proceedings though their votes would weigh less than those of elected Members of Parliament. Along with the new system came a new Parliament Building and chamber which meant that for the first time, the House of Representatives and the Senate would have their own separate chambers within the same building.
The last Parliament session under the original 2016 parliamentary system was held on the 1st April 2017. After which, Parliament was dissolved and the new system was put into effect.
Political Party registration begins
Main Article: Political Parties
With the introduction of a party-list proportionate system came the legalization of political parties which had previously been banned with party registration starting on March 30th. In order to be included on ballot papers, parties had to register on the Political Parties wiki page and create a separate page for the party itself.
Televised WBC debate (2 Apr)
As part of the new parliamentary system and April 2017 General Election, the WolvHaven Broadcasting Corporation hosted a televised debate between party leaders on the 2nd of April. Topics such as stricter chat laws, trams/trains/rail systems in the Sandbox and Laboratory worlds, Gardellia access requirements, rights and autonomy and Pangaea rules were debated.
[Embed YouTube video of the debate]
April 2017 General Election
Main Article: General Election of WolvHaven, April 2017
The first General Election of WolvHaven was held from 6 April 2017 to form the House of Representatives of the 6th Parliament of WolvHaven. Turnout was low at 30 voters, with most voters being members of the Political Parties running in the election, resulting with no party gaining an overall majority of seats.
| Party | % of Vote | Number of Votes | Seats after election |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Centre | 13.79% |
4/29 |
1/12
|
| Democratiam | 3.45% |
1/29 |
0/12
|
| Honest and Green Party | 13.79% |
4/29 |
1/12
|
| WolvHaven Realist and Altruist Party | 3.45% |
1/29 |
0/12
|
| National Conservative Party | 13.79% |
4/29 |
1/12
|
| Party for Gardellia | 6.90% |
2/29 |
0/12
|
| Pure Haven Party | 17.24% |
5/29 |
2/12
|
| South Gardellian National Party | 17.24% |
5/29 |
2/12
|
| WolvHaven Architect Party | 10.34% |
3/29 |
1/12
|
| Spoiled Votes | - | 1/30 |
- |
Formation of a Coalition Government
Main Article: SGNP-NCP-CEN Coalition
Following negotiations, the South Gardellian National Party, National Conservative Party and The Centre formed the SGNP-NCP-CEN Coalition on April 15th following President SilverWolv inviting them to form a government, enabling their leader olovld to take office as the 1st Prime Minister of WolvHaven. Meanwhile, the Pure Haven Party and the WolvHaven Architect Party formed an opposition coalition whilst the Honest and Green Party remained neutral to either side of the house.
Pangaea replaces New Hollow
Main Article: Pangaea
As part of a set of World Resets announced by President SilverWolv in January 2017, the old survival world New Hollow was closed on the May 6th marking the end of a transition period to the new Pangaea world.
Mechanicsburg International Airport opened
Main Article: Mechanicsburg International Airport
Following the opening of Mechanicsburg International Airport in 4th Haven on June 10th 2017, the server's spawn was moved there. This included the opening of a new immigration test located in the Airport Concourse whilst players could access the server's different worlds by boarding planes at the airport's various gates.
Laboratory access restricted
Main Article: Laboratory
On August 19th 2017, access to the Laboratory world was restricted build access to those with Gardellia build rights and architects only. In addition, all train tracks and model railroads would be removed, though station and train models would not. This marked a major shift in the world's purpose, being the spirtual successor to INNOVATE, a world which focused on rail systems.
#server-chat launched on Discord
On September 6th 2017, the #server-chat channel (then named #irc) was launched on the official WolvHaven Discord channel. Similarly to the dynmap IRC feature which existed at the time, it enabled Discord users to communicate directly with players on the Minecraft server. Following the trial period and the new feature's popularity, the dynmap IRC feature was phased out on September 27th.
The September 16th 2017 Parliament Session
Trial on streamlining parliamentary process
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven
On September 13th 2017, President SilverWolv announced a trial on changes to the parliamentary process intending on speeding up legislative work.
Bills would notably have to go through an additional vote and three readings. The first reading involved the reading of the bill's title and summary statement after which the house would vote on it based on the usefulness of the bill. The rest of the lawmaking process remained the same.
The September 16th 2017 Parliament Session and ensuing inquiry
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven/7th
Originally scheduled to be the second last parliament session of the term, the September 16th 2017 Parliament session would become the session with the largest amount of drama at its time. The Honest and Green Party queued a total of five bills together with the Democratiam queuing an additional two bills leading to the session exceeding the 3.5 hour maximum runtime. It was also the first session whereby the aforementioned first reading vote was introduced to save parliament time in the event a bill which would be deemed a waste of parliament time could swiftly be rejected.
As many of the parliamentary staff were unavailable that day, Parliament was understaffed with only the speaker and one clerk, making it impossible for each of the two voting lobbies to be manned by clerks to record the votes.
Allegations were soon made by the Leader of the Opposition, autobus22, accusing the United Progressive Coalition (UPG) and the National Conservative Party of voting out bills tabled by the Honest and Green Party based on the party and opinion of the bill and thus not being in accordance of the purpose of the first reading vote. The Leader of the Opposition was also seen interrupting several calls by calling out several invalid points of order. This eventually led to members of the South Gardellian National Party provoking the leader of the opposition by jeering at him at some points of the debate.
Several unparliamentary remarks were made throughout the session, of which the most notable was the Leader of the Opposition calling the Speaker, Grass_Jelly, a "muppet". All of this eventually boiled over when there was a disagreement over whether the HGP MP Ardyle's vote was to be counted or not. The Leader of the Opposition lashed out at the clerks & UPG leading to autobus22 being the first Leader of the Opposition to be removed from the chamber by the Speaker in WolvHaven Parliament History.
A parliamentary inquiry into the session was carried out after the Leader of the Opposition accused the Speaker and clerk of professional wrongdoing such as but not limited to not honoring the 5 minute speech cap time and that bills were brought to voting too early. However, the report published showed that the Speaker had not committed any wrongdoing and that he had carried out his tasks properly.
There was also a lot of public backlash against the Leader of the Opposition over his lack of understanding towards the Speaker and the clerk as parliament sessions started at midnight for the speaker and 10pm for the clerk. He was labelled as being unreasonable and having too high of an expectation of people. The Prime Minister, minebuilder1223 also chimed in and recalled his experience of being a parliamentary clerk - describing it as a "bloody stressful job" when "MPs don't behave properly".
New Metro Operator Concession Model launched
The Department of Transport launched a new Metro Operator Concession Model that took effect on September 24th 2017.
Under the new model, all existing Metro Line Operators saw their contracts terminated on the September 24th. The new scheme saw most of the automatic metro lines being operated by TransHaven – the government owned public transport operator while the manual lines were awarded to different operators. The new model also clarified the role of operators with them notably having to liaison with existing train drivers to provide regular scheduled services on the manual lines they operate. Contracts would run for three months with the operator’s contract will be reviewed and terminated or renewed based on the line’s performance.
First session of the Gardellia Assembly
Main Article: Gardellian Assembly
After the passing of Gardellia Federalisation & Council Establishment Bill, WolvHaven was turned into a federation and Gardellia was given statehood, leading to the establishment of the Parliament of Gardellia. The Gardellian Assembly make its own laws and only enact in Gardellia. As a result, all infrastructure plans which extend outside of town borders and were still in planning by the October 29th had to be presented to the first session of the Gardellian Assembly held on the same day before construction can start. If they are not, they would be deemed illegal by the Assembly and be requested to be removed.
The new system was widely unpopular and described as overly bureaucratic and quickly fell into disuse with a new Noticeboard being put into place to foster communication on Gardellian projects.
Further changes to parliamentary procedure
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven
Following the initial trial of first voting introduced on September 16th 2017, further changes were made to the Parliamentary process from November 16th which remained in place until the replacement of physical sessions of Parliament by Discord Parliament.
Notable changes included the removal of first votes which made parliamentary proceedings more confusing and ultimately took more time than required in the event a division was required. In addition, all bills would now have to go through a minimum of two parliamentary sessions in order to be passed by the House of Representatives with each bill being debate on twice and being voted on after the second debate at the second session.
Honestus Esse
The Honestus Esse initiative was launched by the WolvHaven staff team on December 9th 2017 running till the end of the month in a bid to make members more aware of their actions and how they affect the community.
Named after the Latin term meaning “to be honest”, the initiative encouraged players to provide anonymous feedback to others in the community, similar to the popular anonymous tools at the time such as sayat.me and sarahah. The initiative was set up in the wake of findings made by the WolvHaven Demographic Census 2017 in which numerous players noted that they were annoyed by one or more people on the server. Therefore, the Honestus Esse program was created to compile and send feedback to people on the server in order to make each other more aware of their actions, how they affect and/or make others feel and how they can improve to help build a better community together.
Gardellia Expanded
Main Article: Gardellia
In the wake of the increasing overcrowding of Gardellia, the world was expanded to the north, east and west in late December 2017 around its first anniversary.
2018:
Changes to verbal warnings
In the wake of Veteran players having been noted by Staff as having broken server rules at a higher frequency since 2017, changes were made to the server's verbal warning system from January 1st 2018. In order to comabt the leniancy that is offered to players who are ranked citizen and above, leading to many thinking that they will always be able to get away with breaking the rules, verbal warnings were no longer given out to players who had been around on the server for more than 6 months.
Gardellian second claims
Main Article: Gardellia
Following the expansion of Gardellia in late December 2017, players were authorized to start second claims conditioned to certain requirements from January 2nd 2018. Players' first claims notably had to be large enough, spanning over 250 metres in radius from the city centre whilst their second claims could not be located on the mainline network if their prior claim already was located on it.
2018 Gardellia Hockey League
Main Article: 2018 Gardellia Hockey League
The Gardellia Hockey League was an independant ice hockey league operating within Gardellia. The league consisted of eight teams throughout eight cities who aimed to win the glorious and magnificent GHL Cup. First founded in early 2017 after the commissioner, Ziggy85, decided he wanted to share his love of hockey within the world of WolvHaven. Helped by fellow hockey fan DNP_10, the league's first competitive season started on January 6th 2018 wrapping up on July 7th with the victory of the Nelsonburg Ice Eagles.
| Award | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| Qixiang Trophy | Castelnau Conquest | Awarded to the team that wins the regular season by having the most points in the standings out of the entire league |
| Gardellia Award | Nelsonburg Ice Eagles | Awarded to the player with the most goals scored out of the entire league |
| Diamond Award | Dalesburg Flight | Awarded to the winner of the Western Conference Finals |
| Notch Trophy | Nelsonburg Ice Eagles | Awarded to the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals |
| GHL Cup | Nelsonburg Ice Eagles | The most prestigious award in the league, awarded to the team that wins the GHL Playoffs and thus becomes the league champion |
Shifts in WolvHaven's political landscape
Prime minister minebuilder1223 resigns
Main Article: Prime Minister of WolvHaven
Following the weakening of the United Progressive Coalition government as Members of Parliament from the The Centre and the South Gardellian National Party were repeatedly absent and after several clashes with the opposition over some of the controversial topics such as the Mentionable List Revision Act and the contentious Government and Parliament Reform Bill, Prime Minister minebuilder1223 tendered his resignation to the President on January 28th 2018 during the 8th Session of Parliament of the term and has appointed _AngelKevin_ (now ohuehue) as the 4th Prime Minister of WolvHaven. minebuilder1223 had previously stated his intentions to resign at the end of the Parliamentary Term.
Formation of Forward WolvHaven: the beginning of the mega-party era
Main Article: Forward WolvHaven In the wake of the near-collapse of the United Progressive Coalition and the upcoming April 2018 General Election, the Party for Gardellia and the National Conservative Party merged to form the Forward WolvHaven mega-party on March 25th. The merger enabled the newly-formed party to become the largest party following the April 2018 General Election with 7 out of the 17 seats, far ahead of The Centre's 3 Members of Parliament. Despite this, in order to attain a majority in the House of Representatives, Forward WolvHaven partnered with Democratiam to form the FWH-DEM Coalition.
Parliamentary supermajority
Main Article: FWH-DEM-CEN Coalition
In the wake of the Honest and Green Party's increasingly strained relation with The Centre due to the former's controversial leader autobus22, The Centre joined the Government on June 24th forming the FWH-DEM-CEN Coalition. The grand coalition was the most powerful in WolvHaven Parliamentary History, controlling 14 out of the 17 seats leaving the opposition powerless.
Final FifthHaven world map revealed
Main Article: New Wolfminster (5th Haven)
The initial island layout for FifthHaven came under heavy criticism by Lykanatthemochi for being "too unrealistic" and also requested for a more "realistic" island layout, and as a result, he was invited by SilverWolv to propose a new map layout as the world had already been worldpainted by then.
Lykanatthemochi followed up with the call for his idea of "realistic looking islands" on 14 March 2018 with a drawing that contained 11 main islands for development. The proposal also called for a larger map size of 10km by 10km; which was eventually upscaled further to the current 12km by 12km. This new proposal would be taken as the official layout which New Wolfminster was to be based upon.
The new proposal also followed the layout of the original initial proposal, allowing most of the previously discussed plans to be easily transferred over into the new map.
Due to its nature, the world had to be worldpainted again from scratch. To do this, SilverWolv printed a copy of the image and slid it into a clear plastic paper holder and traced the outlines of the islands using a permanent marker. He then pasted the clear plastic holder over his laptop which had the worldpainter program open and started painting the world from there using the drawn outlines as reference.
WBC Website launched
Main Article: WolvHaven Broadcasting Corporation
The WBC News Website was launched on March 4th 2018. Replacing the WolvHavener, the website provided a one-stop news source for players. WolvHaveners could also contribute by submitting opinion pieces or by joining the news team. Activity on the website did not last that long however and was practically inactive by early 2020 when newsnetwh was launched. News coverage by WBC News would later be eventually officially discontinued in May 2020.
Ground broken on FifthHaven
Main Article: New Wolfminster (5th Haven)
Ground was broken on FifthHaven on June 23rd 2018 and was celebrated by minebuilder1223, who shared a picture of the first blocks placed in the world; which formed the official WolvHaven flag on a mast on the world's Clarence Island, which would be the world's Welcome Centre.
New players would spawn on a boats; similar to how immigrants arrived in the United States at Ellis Island back in the day. A new immigration building was also constructed, together with a Hospital & Quarantine Centre; which as since been demolished by Heiopeii to make way for newer plans for the island. By May 2018, work had started on the city's capitol island with the initial roundabout infront of City Hall constructed, and the island's initial road network would start to be constructed.
Prior to this three preview versions of the world were put up onto the server, which allowed builders to tour, visit, and test buildings within the worlds before official work would begin as a final chance for players to provide feedback about any potential tweaks that were required for the world itself.
WH-MRT Joint Security Agreement
Following increasing threats to server security, a first draft of the WH-MRT Joint Security Agreement was revealed to WolvHaveners on June 10th 2018.
This followed a round of constructive and comprehensive talk between WolvHaven officials their MRT counterparts which have given both administrations a chance to have important and influencial discussions about a number of issues and discuss how the security situation between both of our servers could be improved. Both servers came to an agreement about what information should and should not be distributed between servers, with notably Personally Identifiable Information (such as IP addresses, personal email addresses or addresses of residence or work) not being shared between servers, but information exclusively pertaining to an individual's online profile (such as Bans, Warnings and Past Offences) being permitted to be shared for the benfit of both server's security. WolvHaveners were invited to scrutinize the draft agreement and offer feedback.
Few changes were proposed by WolvHaveners and following a conclusive second round of negotations and the passing of the bill by Parliament, part of the Joint Security Agreement came into effect on June 24th.
1st Wolvhaven Olympics
Main Article: 1st Wolvhaven Olympics
The 1st Wolvhaven Olympics were held between July 6th and 18th 2018. Featuring seven events (Hockey, Curling, Bobsled, Archery, PVP, Speed Skating and Spleef) and 18 participating cities, the events made use of numerous sporting facilities in WolvHaven City.
Ofcorp launched
Main Article: Office of Corporations
In the wider context of the rapid increase in the amount of corporate activity in WolvHaven, the Forward WolvHaven-led government announced the formation of the Office of Corporations on August 4th. The new statutory agency would be responsible for registering corporations and giving them closer ties to the government though small companies were not required to register if they did not have any intention of working with the government.
OfCorp was never fully implemented and was quickly forgotten amidst other government policies and intitiatives.
Tree world opens
After many requests, the Custom Tree Repository tree grid by lentebriesje was been added to the server on August 7th. This enabled Architects & Gardellian worldedit permission holders to visit and copy the trees from the new world.
Metro+ B series launched
Main Article: Metro+
In line with the routine maintenance and renewal of the Metro+ ticketing system, Metro+ A-Series cards were phased out from July 18th and were completely replaced by B-Series cards from August 16th.
[Embed YouTube video]
Holiday Train
In the spirit of the 2018 festive season, President SilverWolv announced the launch of a community train build on November 10th.
All players with Gardellia build rights were able to contribute to the train built in the Laboratory world. Players were invited to add random cars/coaches/carriages to the train. The event culminated with a race held on December 23rd in which players tried to be the fastest to run from the first to the last car of the train.
[Embed YouTube video]
Greater WolvHaven Transformation 2020 launched
Main Article: Greater WolvHaven Transformation 2020
President SilverWolv announced the launch of the Greater WolvHaven Transformation 2020 on December 26th 2018. The scheme was an organizational transformation program that seeked to review, reform and ratify all aspects of the server by the end of 2020 with the vision of a more consistent, efficient and enjoyable server experience for all.
2019:
First administrative day (19 Jan)
First [Engineer] (?)
Main Article: Ranks
Staff split into Departments (19 May)
Main Article: Staff
Gardellia Mainlines code reform (May-July)
Main Article: Gardellia Mainline Code Format History
Screenshot Contest (June)
WolvHaven's Game Show Marathon (July-Aug)
Gardellia Claim Registration (Announced June deadline August)
Main Article: Gardellia
Discord Parliament (October)
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven
New Logo (December)
Formation of United WolvHaven: political hegemony? (31 Dec)
Main Article: United WolvHaven
2020: a pandemic-induced boost in activity... not without controversy
A year of political turmoil
January 2020 General Election
Main Article: General Election of WolvHaven, January 2020
UWH infighting, prime minister mopsistudios resigns
Main Article: Prime Minister of WolvHaven
Dissolution of Parliament
[Embed newsnet coverage]
May 2020 General Election: the last battle of the parties
Main Article: General Election of WolvHaven, May 2020
[Embed newsnet coverage]
United WolvHaven disbands (November?)
Main Article: United WolvHaven
November 2020 Political Reforms
Main Article: November 2020 WolvHaven Political Reforms
2020 Referendum on the mode of representation
Main Article: 2020 Referendum on the mode of representation
WolvHaveners decide on Permanent Residency rank implementation
Main Article: 2020 Referendum on Permanent Residency (PR) Implementation
Media Revolution
Launch of newsnet
Main Article: NewsNet WH
newsnet, WolvHaven's first independent media organization was launched in January 2020 by MatthieuTofu & CM_Raiders. It marked the end of the WolvHaven Broadcasting Corporation's monopoly on the WolvHaven media market. Launching from Studio 1 of the NewsNet Broadcasting Centre in onenorth in Gardellia on January 31st 2020 with the release of the January 2020 edition of Newsroom hosted by editor-in-chief and CEO MatthieuTofu, the new news network was widely praised by ordinary WolvHaveners.
Starting from March 2020, CM_Raiders joined MatthieuTofu in presenting Newsroom WolvHaven in the first edition to incorporate on-screen interviews with numerous interviews from across the server's political spectrum such as the then United WolvHaven Minister for Infrastructure and National Development Baymax1020 and independent statistican imperial_block.
Viewership of the newly-created news outlet soared with the contentious May 2020 General Election with newsnet being the first news outlet in WolvHaven history to interview all party representatives in an unprecedented election coverage package and the first independent news outlet to host an election debate. newsnet also revolutionized the way WolvHaveners waited for the results of elections with the launch of live election coverage involving political analysts and candidates.
WBC shifts its focus from news coverage
Following the increasing inactivity of the WolvHaven Broadcasting Corporation's news division and website, CEO Lykan announced on May 12th that the Corporation would be shifting its focus away from news coverage. He stated that the WBC had succeeded in its role in kickstarting the server's media industry, referencing the earlier launch of newsnet, and would instead be focusing its attention on enterntainement and documentaries.
Gardellia claiming suspended for national security reasons (February)
Main Article: Gardellia
In a bid to avoid another Calais de Royale incident, claiming in Gardellia was suspended
First PRs promoted to citizen (March)
Main Article: Ranks
Gardellia lost, happy April Fool's Day! (April)
Main Article: Gardellia
#helpop ticket system (April)
WolvHaven subreddit launched (May)
Captcha launched in the wake of spam attacks (June)
Pride 2020
Main Article: WolvHaven Pride
The first WolvHaven Pride was held on 27 June 2020, 2PM UTC, mainly organized by Littledoggy2 and CrazySharkGaming. The parade was first held in 2020 as lockdowns around the world due to the COVID-19 Pandemic caused real-life pride parades to be rescheduled or canceled entirely. The parade was held in Capitol Island (Fifth Haven), and participants marched from City Hall to Parade Grounds (Fifth Haven), along the Boulevard at the center of the island. Participants lined up together with wearing banners as hats to form a "PRIDE20" banner, and they marched alongside floats that were constructed along the boulevard. The parade led to the server hitting its latest record of players online at a given time of 30, the server's maximum player slots at the time.
The event had all members of the community contribute. The iconic pastel-colored howling wolf with a heart logo was created by Teh_Red. Meanwhile, street decorations and banners were made by ohuehue. Perfecttrains helped to build the firework systems.
A monument commemorating the event was built in the park behind Parade Grounds.
DevCom launched (June)
Main Article: Federal Republic of WolvHaven Development Commission
Server returns to Singapore (June)
Server leadership changes (August)
(POS and stuff)
[Embed newsnet coverage]
Whistle-blowing form launched (October)
Calidia launched (Christmas Day)
Main Article: Calidia
2021: as the world starts living with COVID, the server adjusts to a new normal
Parliament's demise
Main Article: Parliament of WolvHaven
February 2021 General Election: the first under the reformed system
Main Article: General Election of WolvHaven, February 2021
July 2021 General Election: the last General Election
Main Article: General Election of WolvHaven, July 2021
August 2021 By-Election: the first and last By-Election
Main Article: By-election of WolvHaven, August 2021
WolvHaven celebrates its tenth anniversary (2 Apr)
Metro+ C series launched (April)
Main Article: Metro+
New wiki launched (June)
[VIP] rank phased out, [PS] tag introduced (June)
Main Article: Ranks
Pride 2021
Main Article: WolvHaven Pride
Server rules simplified (July)
Vision 2023 announced (October)
2022: Shift to a creative-focused server
The ephemeral Building Blasts (March-April)
Main Article: Building Blasts
WolvHaven on r/place (April)
Main Article: WolvHaven on r/place
New Sandbox launched (soon)
Main Article: Sandbox